Page 202 of Safe Word

‘Yep.’

‘Good.’

I groaned under my breath. ‘Enough, both of you. Kitchen. Go. Aunt Francesca’s liquor cabinet is begging for a raid.’

‘You go ahead,’ Cain said, stopping me mid-step.

I frowned, meeting his eyes.

‘I need to call Vinnie. Tell him to check the office.’

My stomach sank. Shame flooded me. ‘Oh, fuck – you’re right! What if he went there too?’

‘All the files are in the cloud,’ he said, calm as ever. ‘We just need to prep for whatever the insurance throws at us.’

He gave Matteo a hard, assessing look before turning away, both of them moving in synchrony that didn’t feel friendly, but wasn’t quite hostile either.

And I stepped out of the living room, trailing after my brother with a pulse still racing as the door swung shut behind me.

In the kitchen, Matteo slung his jacket over the back of one of the barstools, before lowering himself onto it with a familiar thud. I caught the swirl of new ink crawling down his arms.

‘Those are new,’ I said lightly, already reaching into the cabinet for tumblers.

‘Why the fuck didn’t you tell us?’ he cut in the, the barely leashed fury pouring right out.

I froze mid-reach. The glass slipped slightly in my fingers, catching the light – almost crashed into the ground.

‘If you’d just said something, Birdie…’ His tone cracked at the edges.

‘Then what?’ I spun around, crystal still clutched in hand. ‘You’d beat him? Threaten him? Or go full psycho and torture him?’

Matteo’s jaw tensed, his shoulders squaring like a soldier bracing for war. ‘That’s uncalled for.’

I let out a bitter laugh, turning back towards the cupboard.

‘I did what I had to do to protect the family.’

‘You sound just like Dad.’ I reached for the nearest open bottle that happened to be Brandy and poured.

My phone hummed to life in my back pocket and I pulled it out to see Vinnie’s message asking where we were. Cain clearly didn’t know.

I typed up the address quickly, and turned to my brother.

‘Everyone who came at us wanted to hurt us. Dad would’ve done the same,’ he said.

‘So you figured you’d take the crown and keep the cycle going – another bully in the bloodline.’

‘I figured I’d keep us alive. The mob doesn’t ask questions!’ he snapped. ‘It’s big fish eat little fish, Birdie. That’s the way it is. But it still doesn’t explain why you kept this shit to yourself.’

I poured a second glass with more force than necessary, the bottle clinking against the rim. The scent of aged liquor curled up my throat.

I drank first. Matteo followed.

The burn was strong. Clean.Unlike everything else this week.

We locked eyes over the rim of our glasses. Mum’s seawater eyes stared back at me.

‘You had enough on your plate, Matt,’ I said softly, the anger bleeding out of my voice. ‘I knew about the smuggling deals.’